Upcoming Events

Philip Graham Reading Tour

Professor Philip Graham will be reading from his new book,The Moon, Come Down to Earth at several universities and bookstores this fall. For more information on dates and times, visit mcsweeneys.net.

VOICE Graduate Reading Series

Illinois M.F.A. students Dana Burchfield (poetry), Heather Salus (poetry), and Eric Tanyavutti (fiction) read from their work.

John Griswold

Creative Writing faculty member John Griswold reads from his debut novel, A Democracy of Ghosts, which was published in the summer of 2009 by Wordcraft of Oregon.

NINTH LETTER presents Seth Fried and Chris Wiberg

Two authors from the current issue of Ninth Letter read from their work

Seth Fried’s short stories have appeared twice in Ninth Letter, as well as in McSweeney’s, Missouri Review, One Story, and many other publications. His story in the current issue of Ninth Letter is an excerpt from Animalcula: A Young Scientist’s Guide to New Creatures.

Chris Wiberg, a former assistant editor at Ninth Letter, is a Chicago-based writer whose fiction has appeared recently in Folio and the North Atlantic Review. He received his MFA from the University of Illinois, and teaches creative writing at the University of Chicago's Graham School for General Studies. His short essay about Election Night 2008 appears in the current issue of Ninth Letter.

Philip Graham

Creative Writing faculty member Philip Graham reads from his new book, The Moon, Come to Earth: Dispatches from Lisbon (Univ. of Chicago Press), an expanded edition of his series of dispatches originally published on McSweeney's online.





VOICE Graduate Reading Series

Guest readers from the Bowling Green State University M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program will join Illinois M.F.A. students Aaron Burch (fiction) and Sara Gelston (poetry) in this final reading of the VOICE fall series.





Past Events

Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo is the Fall 2009 Artist-in-Residence in American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her books of poetry include How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems (W.W. Norton & Co., 2002); A Map to the Next World: Poems (2000); The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (1994), which received the Oklahoma Book Arts Award; In Mad Love and War (1990), which received an American Book Award and the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award; Secrets from the Center of the World (1989); She Had Some Horses (1983); and What Moon Drove Me to This? (1979). She had received the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award, the Josephine Miles Poetry Award, the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, and fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Witter Bynner Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

VOICE Graduate Reading Series

Illinois M.F.A. students Brian Kornell (fiction), Sara McWhorter (poetry), and Micah Riecker (fiction) read from their work.

Ninth Letter presents Keith Lee Morris

Keith Lee Morris is the author of The Dart League King (Tin House Books, 2008), The Greyhound God, and The Best Seats in the House: Stories (both from University of Nevada Press). His stories have appeared in many publications including A Public Space, Southern Review, Ninth Letter, Cincinnati Review, New England Review, and Best New Stories from the South. He teaches at Clemson University. This event is co-sponsored by Ninth Letter and the Carr Reading series.

University of Illinois Press Presents: National Poetry Month Celebration

University of Illinois Press author and National Poetry Series winner Oni Buchanan, author of What Animal, along with special guests Donna Stonecipher (The Cosmopolitan, Coffee House Press) and Tyehimba Jess (Leadbelly, (Verse Press, 2005), will give a poetry reading in honor of National Poetry Month 2009.

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, Jr. Lecture Series: Junot Diaz

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) and Drown (1996), will be appearing at the University of Illinois as part of the Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, Jr. Lecture Series. Sponsored by the Latina/Latino Studies Program with support from the Carr Reading Series.

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MFA Public Reading, Spring 2009

Seven University of Illinois Creative Writing graduate students read from their thesis work. Featuring fiction writers Brian Keyes, Aaron Madrigal, and Arley McNeney, and poets Lillian Bertram, Jaime Brunton, Russell Evatt, and Lara Mann

. Sponsored by Creative Writing and the Department of English.

VOICE Graduate Student Reading Series

University of Illinois graduate students read from their work. Featuring poets Matt Minicucci and Ashley Booth and fiction writers Crystal Thomas and Brian Kornell.

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Author Xu Xi Reads from Her New Book, Evanescent Isles

Xu Xi is the author or editor of ten books, most recently EVANESCENT ISLES: FROM MY CITY-VILLAGE, a collection of personal essays. Other titles include THE UNWALLED CITY (novel) and OVERLEAF HONG KONG (stories & essays). Her new novel, HABIT OF A FOREIGN SKY was shortlisted for the inaugural MAN Asian Literary Prize and will be published later this year. She is on the prose faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing and is currently a visiting writer at the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program. A Chinese-Indonesian native of Hong Kong, she now inhabits the flight path connecting New York, Hong Kong and the South Island of New Zealand. This event is sponsored by the Carr Reading Series

Poet Quraysh Ali Lansana Reads from His Work

Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of They Shall Run: Harriet Tubman Poems and Southside Rain, as well as a children's book and two poetry chapbooks. He is the editor of Glenco/McGraw-Hill's African American Literature Reader and of two anthologies of literary works from Chicago's award-winning youth arts program, Gallery 37. This event is sponsored by the Carr Reading Series.

Live Nude Girls in the Devil's Territory: Kyle Minor and Kathleen Rooney, reading with Ninth Letter editor Jodee Stanley

Authors Kathleen Rooney and Kyle Minor will give a reading from their new books Live Nude Girls and In the Devil's Territory at the Illini Union Bookstore, as part of their national booktour, along with guest reader Jodee Stanley, editor of Ninth Letter

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Department of English Presents: A Reading and Book Signing by Janet Burroway

Janet Burroway is the author of eight novels, plays, poetry, essays, texts for dance, and children’s books. Her latest novel, Bridge of Sand appears in March from Houghton Mifflin. Her Writing Fiction : A Guide to Narrative Craft, is the most widely used creative writing text in America, and her multi-genre Imaginative Writing is in preparation for a third edition. She is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emerita of the Florida State University. She divides her time among Florida, Wisconsin, and London.

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VOICE Reading Series

University of Illinois Creative Writing graduate students read from their work. Featuring fiction writers Aaron Burch and Lindsey Drager, and poet Sean Karns

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